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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > September > 03
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Make-or-bust season for sack-less DE Anderson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flowery Branch — This is a big season for Jamaal Anderson. Rich McKay, the man who made him the eighth overall pick of the 2007 draft, is no longer in charge of personnel, and the new administration isn’t yet sure what it inherited.
“It’s almost like I’m starting over,” Anderson said this week. “I still feel like a rookie.”
His actual rookie season is remembered most for a big fat zero — Anderson started 16 games at defensive end and finished with no sacks. That was taken as a fairly noisy alarm, but Ray Hamilton, the new defensive line coach and a terrific pass rusher in his day, believes Anderson has what it takes to start stacking sacks in bulk.
“Without a doubt, he’s a player,” Hamilton said. “I watched the film, and I saw five or six places where he really should have had sacks. He wasn’t a total bust. He had a decent year.”
Hamilton said he wants Anderson “to play more physical,” and that’s the sentiment you hear most regarding this angular player. He went to Arkansas as a walk-on wide receiver and, at 6-foot-6 and 282 pounds, he could still pass for a tight end. But a defender needs to be ornery, not just skilled, and there’s some question whether Anderson has the requisite temperament.
Already the new staff is trying to give him a leg up. Anderson played tackle on some preseason passing downs, a tack Hamilton has taken before. “When you put someone against the guards, guards don’t set up as deep as [offensive] tackles. I did that with Willie McGinest [in New England] and Hugh Douglas [with the Jets]. Hugh Douglas got his first sack playing inside.”
Said Anderson: “I do like playing inside. I get to use my quickness against guards. I’m not a very hard guy to coach.”
Was it any relief that, in the first exhibition of 2008, the guy who went without in 2007 registered a sack? “No,” he said, “because I got two against Cincinnati [last preseason]. Come talk to me after the Detroit game.”
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